Tall Ships Nova Scotia honoured

By THE CHRONICLE HERALDPublished February 27, 2013 - 12:14pm Last Updated February 27, 2013 - 7:17pm

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Tall Ships Nova Scotia recently received international recognition for its successful 10-day festival held last summer in ports across the province.

Earlier this month, Tall Ships Nova Scotia was awarded Port of the Year at Tall Ships America’s 40th annual conference on sail training and tall ships in Erie, Pa.

The conference was attended by more than 180 tall ship officers, sailors, educators, and port organizers from North America and Europe.

Colin MacLean, president and CEO of the Waterfront Development Corporation, accepted the award.

“Our vision was to showcase the best of Nova Scotia and ensure that the captains and their crew had the opportunity to experience Halifax at its best,” MacLean said in a news release.

“The ships were magnificent, and the crew members graciously received tens of thousands of visitors aboard for public tours.”

Last year’s tall ships festival injected $10.1 million into the provincial economy, MacLean said in an interview Wednesday. And, approximately 65,000 out-of-province visitors attended the event.

“We used a different approach to crowd-counting this time,” MacLean said. “What we tried to do this time was actually something that was not done before, we used photography. So, with the different methodology, we came up with those numbers.”

Port of the Year is awarded to a host port organizer that has demonstrated significant support for and furthered public recognition of sail training. This is the second time Halifax has been awarded Port of the Year.

In addition to Port of the Year, the Waterfront Development Corporation also won three other Tall Ships Challenge awards: ship and crew vote; operations, logistics and marketing; and sail training and education.